Despite reports from elsewhere in the country that domestic violence is on the rise, Chief Deputy Austin Garrett of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department said he has not seen that trend in the county, at least yet.
I have not seen those number but we are watching those statistics,” said the chief deputy. “Naturally, with everyone staying home, there is a chance that domestic violence cases could increase.
However, Chief Deputy Garrett points out that he may not have seen all of the statistics from other agencies, due to how data-collection is done in Hamilton County.
“I have not seen an increase with our agency,” he said. “But every agency compiles their own data. So now I haven’t been briefed on a sharp increase.“
The chief deputy did highlight the fact that the frequency of domestic violence can fluctuate depending on a variety of factors.
“Those kinds of numbers go up and down also based on time of year, holidays, and things like that,” said Chief Deputy Garrett. “But naturally, with people being confined at home, we’re watching to see if we have a spike in it.”
From March 19 to 25, there were 158 arrests and 24 were for domestic violence (around 15 percent of arrests). From earlier in the month from March 1 to March 7, there were 393 arrests and 41 were for domestic violence (around 10 percent of the arrests).